Flood relief one year after the disaster For many people affected by the floods, things are only good on the surface
Rheinbach · It’s almost twelve months since the flood disaster of July 2021. But relief organisations are still on site. They hire staff and rent offices. Two aid workers from Diakonie Fluthilfe explain how the region is doing.
It’s summer again in the region where the floods hit. The rubble from the streets has disappeared, destroyed facades are hidden behind temporary structures. Life seems to be going on again where the torrents of water did so much destruction last July. But the various flood relief organisations are still there. In fact, they are currently gearing up for long-term operations: there are now full-time flood relief workers in the area, permanent offices are being rented and furnished. And they have plenty to do.
The flood relief office of the Diakonisches Werk Bonn und Region has moved into the first floor at Lohmarkt 1 in Rheinbach. On 1 March, the group, which had been mobile until then, moved into several rooms. Some furniture is still missing at the end of June, but Beate Krugel, Jennifer Deventer and five other part-time team members are already working here. In the meeting room, a combination of office chairs and a beanbag chair will do, in what will be the group room, there is a simple table with wooden chairs.
Many of those affected have run out of steam
Deventer and Krugel took time to talk to the GA. Why are they needed professionally as flood relief workers in the first place? "Not all the buildings have been rebuilt yet," says Krugel. And more importantly, many people need help right now. Some of them started the reconstruction with a lot of self-confidence and strength. But one year later, they both observe: "Many people have run out of steam."
The original zest for action got lost somewhere between filling in applications and trying to find for tradespersons. This is where the Diakonie's flood aid comes in. Deventer is a psychologist from Rheinbach. Before the flood, she was self-employed; shortly after the disaster, she began to help on a voluntary basis, visiting evacuation shelters, among other things. When the deaconry advertised positions, she turned her voluntary work into a profession. Krugel is a deacon and has worked for the Diakonie before. With community-based social counselling, she was on site from day one. Together with Deventer, she started talking to people. Both went from door to door in the affected areas and asked what the people needed. A sympathetic ear, help in coping with trauma? Now they offer it in a permanent place. Around 70 assisted clients were reported by Deventer alone for the first quarter of 2022, Krugel accompanied 40 people, and colleagues arrive at similar numbers.
Things are often only superficial
People seek out the team for very different reasons. From simple questions about parents who are worried about their children and their experiences with the flood, to a person who still cannot go to his basement after almost a year - and therefore nothing has been done there yet. Or even a couple who in December did not yet know that financial and practical help was available. They were living without heating and showered only as rarely as possible. "Such a case is not uncommon," Krugel says.
"On the surface things are moving forward, but under the surface things are seething," is how Deventer describes the state of the region. The people are "sore". The disaster, Covid and then the war in Ukraine: "What's next?" is a question you hear a lot.
It’s also not uncommon for people to play down what happened to them. Others are much worse off, they often say, usually referring to the Ahr valley. Deventer wants to encourage people in the Rhein-Sieg district and other flood regions to get help. Talking helps, she explains. And feeling the feelings that are there. "There is no other way."
In Heimerzheim, day-care children take a closer look at the Swist river
But there are different ways and techniques to tackle the various problems. The Diakonie-Fluthilfe will soon be carrying out a concrete project with the Heimerzheim nursery school, which once had its home on Quellenstraße. Through actions by BUND, the children are to carefully reacquaint themselves with the Swist, in a project about the "stream as a habitat". The flood relief workers will at the same time offer a parents' evening on trauma in children.
Such psychological counselling is a priority at the Diakonie. But this does not mean that they are not open to all other concerns of flood victims. They are particularly helpful in applying for donations, for example, to repair the 20 percent of damage that is not covered by reconstruction aid. And where they do not have the experts themselves, they are well networked with the other flood relief groups. There are regular meetings of all active people. Finally, in Meckenheim, Rheinbach and Swisttal, full-time volunteers from the Johanniter, Malteser, Odendorfer Bürgerverein and Awo are also involved.
All services offered by the Diakonie are free of charge, as are most of the counselling services offered by the other associations. Krugel and her team are financed by the Diakonisches Werk's disaster aid. The project at the Rheinbach location is initially planned to run for two years. It could also last longer. Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe also operated similar contact points after the Oder flood. The last office there closed after seven years.
